The Eye of Cardassia
by oxford-hamilton
Summary: Caught in the middle of a bungled robbery, Kirk is faced with helping an unusual jewellery thief who's seriously pissed off the Cardassians. Why did she save his life? And what the hell is the Eye of Cardassia? [Post-Into Darkness, sequel to Caspian X]


**Chapter 1  
Where The City Meets The Sea**

Kirk fired at his attackers, ducking as shots were returned. He was outnumbered and help wasn't coming fast enough.

'Kirk to Enterprise – where the hell are you?' he shouted as a ray shot past his ear, singeing it.

Suddenly a hooded figure leapt past him and knocked over one of his attackers, stabbing them with a sword. Kirk continued to fire on his attackers, knocking one to the ground and shooting him between the eyes.

'Duck!' screamed the figure, and he knelt to the floor as her leg sailed over his head and connected with the attacker that had been sneaking up behind him. The figure then leapt over his back and continued to fight. Springing to his feet Kirk finally hit the attacker hidden high in the ceiling rafters, and watched as he fell screaming to the ground.

A burst of white pain shot through his head and he crumpled to the floor. There was a shout and he squinted through the pain as the hooded figure raced toward him and his attacker, the pair connecting with a loud crunch.

Unable to move, Kirk watched as they fought, gasping as the attacker knocked the sword from the figure's hand and ran her through with it. The figure screamed, but somehow managed to pull the sword out of her shoulder and rammed it through the attacker's throat.

Exhausted and bleeding, the hooded figure checked to make sure there were no other attackers, then dropped the sword and raced to Kirk's side.

'Are you ok?' she asked. He nodded groggily, but couldn't sit up yet. His head was pounding.

'Your shoulder,' he muttered. She waved him away.

'I'm fine,' she lied. 'Come on'

She put her good arm around him and pulled him to his feet. A loud beeping rang through the air as a Cardassian lobbed a flashing grenade at them. The pair turned and ran, the force of the blast throwing them through the air. They crashed through something the woman later realised was a window, and she clutched onto Kirk as they plummeted towards the ground.

Kirk's head fell onto her shoulder, he was out cold.

'You pass out now?' she screamed at him. The wind whipped around them as she pulled the comms off his belt.

'Help we're falling, beam us out of here!' she screamed into it.

'Who is this? Where is the captain?' replied a male voice.

'He's unconscious. My name is Nereida White, please hurry!'

'Negative, I need to speak to Captain Kirk'

'We are falling off a fucking building! If you want your captain to live then beam us up NOW!' she screamed at the voice.

The comms crackled, then her eyes burned as transporter light wrapped around them and the pair dematerialised seconds before hitting the ground.

Spock and Scotty watched as two figures slammed onto the transporter platform with a sickening crunch. Kirk groaned and rolled off the hooded figure, who now lay unconscious beneath him.

Bones ran in as two crew members helped Kirk up and rushed him to medical.

'What the hell?' Bones asked, examining her. Blue liquid was seeping from the hooded figure's head and shoulder. Blood. 'Oh great, she's a fucking mermaid'

He scooped the unconscious figure off the platform, her hood sliding off as her head fell back to reveal long sea-green hair which trailed along the floor as he raced to medical.

'Captain what happened?' Spock asked.

'The Cardassian's attacked me without warning,' Kirk explained. 'The girl saved my life'

'Who is she?' asked Bones, cutting away her shirt to tend to her shoulder.

'I don't know,' said Kirk. 'But a wound like that should've killed her'

'Nah these damn mermaids have hearts on the right hand side,' said Bones as he bandaged her up.

'That's a bit racist Bones,' said Kirk, finally inspecting the girl's face. 'What did mermaids ever do to you?'

Her eyes flickered open for a second and Kirk had the strangest sense of déjà vu staring into her bright green irises.

'They're too slippery, it's not right,' shuddered Bones. Something glinted in her pocket and he pulled out a long sapphire necklace with a diamond pendant the size of an eyeball.

'Well, well,' said Bones, holding it up. 'Very slippery'

'That's the "Eye of Cardassia",' said Spock. 'No wonder they attacked you, they must've thought your visit was a distraction for the theft'

'So why did she help Kirk then? What is she, an honest thief?' scoffed Bones, handing the jewel to Spock before wrapping a bandage around the girls head.

'We must let the Cardassian's know at once,' said Spock. 'If they think Kirk and the Federation had something to do with the theft, then that makes us look very bad. Once she's up and about we'll turn her over to the Cardassian Legate'

'Spock she saved my life, we can't send her to the Cardassian's, she'll be executed!' protested Kirk. 'Can't we just send them back the rock and say she died in the escape?'

'They'll still believe we were accomplices, we can't risk it,' insisted Spock.

'Come on, they're logical Spock. And they respect the Federation, if we tell them she's dead they'll have to believe us,' Kirk continued.

'What if they want proof then?' asked Bones. 'We can't exactly send them her body'

'We'll say we had to burn her, cos she had some kind of aquatic virus,' Kirk suggested. Bones laughed.

'Captain, please this is getting ridiculous,' said Spock.

'No!' Kirk snapped, slamming his hand on the table. 'I'm not saying she's not made a very serious error in judgement in deciding to steal the jewel, but I can't send her to her death. I won't do it. And especially before she's woken up to explain herself'

'Capt-'

'And neither will anyone else on this ship, that's an order,' Kirk said defiantly. Spock finally gave him a curt nod, then turned and left without another word.

'You're making a mistake, Jim,' said Bones seriously. Kirk stood up and looked down at the sleeping Mermaid.

'Just tell me the second she wakes up, ok?' Kirk asked. Bones sighed, but nodded, and the captain returned to the bridge.

The next morning Bones found Nereida's bed empty, a trail of dark blood dotting towards the bathroom. Pushing the door open he jumped back as water poured over his shoes. The mermaid was lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood and tap water, a dark green tail sprouting from her hips.

'Oh for fucks sake,' he muttered, kneeling down and turning her over. She was deathly pale and looked even worse than when he'd first seen her. She'd hit her head on the sink and the wound on her shoulder had torn open. Scooping her up again, he wrapped her in a towel and took her back to her bed. Her eyes flickered and she groaned as he settled her.

Throwing a towel over her tail so he wouldn't have to look at it, he turned back to her as her eyes flicked open.

'Where - I?' she whispered, her eyes struggling to focus on the figure in front of her. 'Oh my head'

'You're on the Enterprise, you're in the custody of Starfleet,' he said, giving her a painkiller and slowly the throbbing in her head faded to a dull ache.

'Captain,' she said. 'Need – talk – Captain'

'Shh now you need to rest,' he said. 'The Captain is alright, you saved him'

He gave her a sedative. 'Just relax'

'No- sister – trouble – Capt...,' she tried to protest, slurring the last word as she collapsed back onto the bed unconscious. Bones jumped as her tail shrank back into legs in the blink of an eye, causing the towel to slide off. Averting his eyes he covered her with a blanket and left her to sleep...


End file.
